1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to data storage solutions, and in particular, to automated data auditing for improved data storage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Enterprises are frequently presented with the challenge of collecting and storing large amounts of data. Over time, the data accumulates and eventually becomes a liability to the organization in the form of increased storage costs.
Data auditing solutions can be implemented to reduce the costs associated with storing large amounts of data. For example, different types of data can be stored in different ways depending upon the value of the data to an enterprise. In a telecommunications example, service providers often times store accounting data for longer periods of time than system fault data.
Unfortunately, current data audit solutions do not allow enterprises to automatically audit data for data retention purposes. As a result, valuable storage resources are wasted by storing data that should be deleted or moved to a more appropriate storage resource. In addition, valuable labor hours are lost to tasks associated with manual data auditing. Furthermore, current data audit solutions create confusion and disagreement among interested parties when data is moved or deleted without notifying or consulting the interested parties.